Letters: April 12

Public should remember cost to Tularosa families

As the Trinity Site opens to tourists on the 70th anniversary of testing the atomic bomb, I hope tourists, lawmakers and politicians remember the families still living in the Tularosa area who continue to battle the negative effects of the testing that occurred near Tularosa seven decades ago.

While reading a New York Times article, little was mentioned about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders. They were referred to as a small group of local protesters "claiming they are living with, and dying from, the health effects of the tests decades later." (http://nyti.ms/1C8qA9K)

This is my plea. I beg New Mexicans to stand by this small group of local protesters. The Tularosa Basin Downwinders fight to bring justice to the many Tularosa residents who suffer from a slew of health issues such as lymphoma, to many forms of cancer.

The federal government established the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act as a form of compensation for families, but cleanup efforts and options are limited. It is going to take a lot more than a small group of local protesters to bring the proper attention to such a serious health issue.

I would like to thank the local media for bringing much needed attention to the people of Tularosa, specifically the people of Tularosa who continue to seek social justice for the families affected by the Trinity Test Site.

Olivia Deleon, Las Cruces

Children in colonias deserve space to play

At a recent Las Cruces community meeting, residents of Vado, Del Cerro, and other nearby colonias voiced their concerns about the lack of safe, clean outdoor spaces for children to play. Located downhill and downwind from multiple dairy farms, residents of Vado and Del Cerro are constantly dealing with contaminated groundwater and standing pools of wastewater swarming with mosquitoes — right outside their front doors.

According to water conservation organization Amigos Bravos, two-thirds of New Mexico dairy farms have been found responsible for contaminating nearby groundwater with excess nitrogen. This is problematic, Amigos Bravos states, because 90 percent of New Mexico's drinking water comes from groundwater sources. Not only does this pose public health and sanitation concerns for community residents, but also contaminants such as nitrogen, E. coli, Salmonella, hormones, and antibiotics could potentially seep into drinking water.

Residents are fed up and are gathering to speak out about these public health concerns. A few weeks ago, Vado residents called upon county commissioners to provide financial help to their problematic drainage and septic systems, demanding that their needs not be ignored by the county.

As residents of Doña Ana County, Vado and Del Cerro community members deserve to be heard. These communities — physically, socially, and politically isolated from the greater Las Cruces area — have been ignored long enough. Many of the residents are employees of the very dairy farms contributing to the environmental havoc in their neighborhoods.

Doña Ana County commissioners should focus on supporting low-income, rural residents deal with health concerns associated with living in close proximity to industrial dairy farms. State government should focus on holding dairies to the highest environmental standards to protect groundwater and community residents.